Little Miracles

April 15, 2012

Life in the mission field is filled with little daily miracles.  This week, we had one that reminded me of the power of prayer.

Last Wednesday, we visited an investigator who is way excited to be baptized.  The only problem is that she and the man she is living with are not yet married.  As members of the church, we believe this to be contrary to the commandments of Heavenly Father.  In order to be baptized, we must be doing our best to follow his commandments.  So, when we visited them on Wednesday, we shared this commandment and invited them to follow it.  The response wasn't one we had been expecting. Sister began crying, explaining that she's been taught by missionaries before and has always wanted to be baptized, but can't be because the guy she is living with doesn't want to get married.  He then explained how he wasn't sure if he really felt the church was true and didn't want to deal with the persecution of being a member, that's why he didn't want to get married so she couldn't get baptized. We did our best to understand his concern, but felt like we made little progress by the time the lesson ended.  We left them with the invitation to discuss this with each other and decide what they wanted to do. Since then, nearly every prayer has been a plea for help for this family. 

We returned this Wednesday, but the husband seemed to be in a bad mood, so I didn't bring up the issue again.  I was afraid it would just make the situation worse. My new companions (who weren't there for the first lesson) joined me in my prayers to know how we can help Brother open his heart to the gospel.

We then came back on Saturday.  I knew I needed to follow up on the invitation we left with them.  I was very nervous to do so, fearing it would cause Brother to be in a bad mood.  I finally asked them if they had talked about getting married.  To my great surprise, Sister smiled and said they were already planning on it.  She had found extra work to save up enough money for the paper work (the paper work costs about 500 pesos) and Brother was going to work that next week to. They had helped someone harvest rice so that they would have extra rice and not need to buy as much. They were both excited about the idea of being baptized and began asking questions about if it could be at the church and if the bishop could be the one to marry them.  It really helped to build up my testimony that Heavenly Father really answers all of our prayers. 

Isa ka adlaw-adlaw nga milagro lang.